' said he to himself, 'I
should escape that death the law inflicts for murder, in consideration
of the provocation, I cannot hope to preserve my employments.--I must
retire from the world, live an obscure life the whole remainder of my
days, and the whole shameful adventure being divulged, will render me
the common topic of table conversation, and entail dishonour and
contempt upon my son.'

Thus did ambition get the better of resentment;--thus did the love of
grandeur extirpate all regard of true honour, and the shame of private
contempt from the world lie stifled in the pride of public homage.

The minister in the mean time kept his word; he let the offending
brother know it was his pleasure he should dispose of his commission
in the guards, and purchase one in a regiment he named to him, which
was very speedily to embark for Gibraltar: the young gentleman obeyed
the injunction, and doubtless was not sorry to quit a place, where
some accident or other, in spite of all the care he had resolved to
take, might possibly bring him to the sight of a brother he had so
greatly injured, the thoughts of whose just reproaches were more
terrible to him, than any thing else that could befal him.

The wife of Natura being also privately admonished by her uncle how to
behave, kept her chamber for some days, not only to give the better
colour to the pretence had been made of her indisposition, but also to
avoid the presence of her husband, till the first emotions of his fury
should be a little abated;--he, on the other hand, profited by this
absence, to bring himself to a resolution how to behave, when the
shock of seeing her should arrive:--as her crime was past recal,
reproaches and remonstrances would be in vain to retrieve her honour,
or his peace; and if they even should work her into penitence, what
would it avail? unless to soften him into a pity, which would only
serve to render him more uneasy, as there was now no possibility of
living with her as a wife.--Having, therefore, well weighed and
considered all these things, it seemed best to him to say nothing to
her of what had happened, and indeed to avoid speaking to her at all,
except in public.

What she thought of a behaviour she had so little reason to expect,
and what effect it produced on her future conduct, shall hereafter be
related: I shall only say at present, that Natura gave himself no pain
to consider what might be her sentiments on the occasion, as long as